Search warrants released today raise new suspicions about the death of 6-year-old Kendrea Johnson.

Johnson, who died Saturday night in a Brooklyn Park foster care home, went into her bedroom at her normal bedtime, about 8 p.m. A few minutes later, a male living in the home said he saw her coloring -- everything appeared normal.

Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the high court judge forced to stand down as chair of the government child abuse inquiry, has said she fears the government will never be able to find an experienced figure to run the investigation, but that victims should not think they can do it.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Paul Jean believed for more than a year that his six-week-old daughter had died in foster care from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. From a newspaper report in August he learned she’d actually become tangled in her foster parents’ bed sheets, and died by accident.

In the Boldest Move in U.S. History to bring awareness to Child Welfare Fraud...

Owen's Law For A Safer Oregon Director Arin Marcus uploaded this tag to the Facebook Profiles of numerous State Agencies...

including every State Of Oregon Department of Human Services pages, Hillsboro Child Welfare, Oregon State Police, Casa Organizations, Washington and Multmomah County Juvenile Departments, Courthouses and Jails...

along with the attorneys and psychologists who are related to his case.

Owen's Law For A Safer Oregon is a citizen's initiative that will Reaffirm a Parent's Constitutional Right To A Jury and Due Process in all Child Welfare Proceedings.

State Representative Wayne Krieger has asked Mr. Marcu to draft a Owen's Law as a house bill after receiving a copy of Owen's Law Executive Summary...

after Arin Marcus served it upon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Vice President Joe Biden...

and Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum who still refuses to investigate the provable allegations that Deputy Attorney General Marcia Lance-Bumb, Caseworkers And Guardian Ad Litem acted in conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud, perjury and extortion against witnesses in the case of AOM v. DHS- the longest case in Oregon History with NO ALLEGATIONS of neglect, abuse or endangerment against Mr. Marcus.

The Oregon Supreme Court refuses to review the case, effectively covering it up. A scathiing Petition For Reconsideration was filed with the Oregon Supreme Court outlining the serious criminal activity within Washington County's Court System.

Race correlates with involvement in the child welfare system more closely than poverty. While there are local variations, Latino children have not traditionally been overrepresented in foster care, while African-American and Native American children represent double the percentage of the foster care population than they do in the general child population. Whites represent a significantly lower percentage than they do in the general child population, while Asian children are the least likely to enter care. Since the disparity in poverty rates for Black and Latino children is relatively small compared to disparity in foster care placement, race operates as its own separate factor, making Black children much more likely than anyone else to wind up in foster care. But why?

A private foster care agency that was run out of Ohio after the 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel has doubled its business elsewhere and continues to bring in millions for its founder while it racks up serious complaints about mishandling foster care cases.

In the wake of the hit film starring Hugh Bonneville and Nicole Kidman, Paddington toys are hugely popular but a charity fears violent fathers could give children these bears, which are being sold online, to pry into the lives of their former partners.

Allegations of child abuse outside of children’s homes rose by 16 percent in Massachusetts in 2013, according to a new state report, providing fresh incentive for Governor-elect Charlie Baker and his administration to continue focusing on vulnerable children after a tumultuous year for child welfare officials.

L.A. County is in an unusual predicament. Traditionally, the county's foster care system has struggled with a shortage of homes for children who are older and with medical and mental health needs. But just this past year, system workers have noticed a shift: suddenly, there's a shortage of beds for the system's babies and toddlers.

An 18-year-old youth, a foster son of the former Inspector General of Police and senior BJP leader, was killed in wee hours today when a vehicle in which he was travelling rammed into an electric pole in Nai Basti area here.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Texas mother of five, Hannah Overton, has spent the past seven years in prison for the murder of a 4-year-old foster child. She and her husband, Larry Overton, were in the process of adopting the boy, Andrew Burd. Hannah was accused of force feeding Andrew enough salt to kill him. Overton said she found him in the kitchen pantry but couldn’t figure out what he had consumed.

In the tense hours following a young Knox woman claimed final week that two masked males had kidnapped her 5-year-old cousin, police investigators had been prohibited from accessing confidential child-protective solutions records that would have offered reams of background on the boy's troubled loved ones.

Today I lost my son. Today a callous and overbearing authority took him from me. Today I watched as a corrupt system fed my son, as grist, to a mill. today I watched how a system can be corrupted so completely that those who are part of it are completely oblivious to their participation in it. I watched a machine at work. A terrifying monstrosity completely out of control. A machine without safety valves or cut offs without a way to stop it or slow it down. I watched a play performed to perfection by a group of actors so amateurish they could be laughed at if not for the brevity of the consequences of their performance.

It’s generally agreed that playing outside is good for kids. Fresh air, sunlight, exercise, social interaction are all vital for proper childhood development. However, a growing herd of nanny-statists within the government, specifically state Child Protective Services agencies, have decided that playing outside without direct supervision is so dangerous that it would be better if children weren’t raised by their own parents. They risk turning our children into a generation of physically stunted, psychologically addled wards of the state. But for their own good!

A veterinarian at the Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center expressed frustration that child social workers never reported animal abuse after visiting a West Springfield home where a puppy suffered traumatic, life-threatening injuries.

Alarmed by reports of parents adopting children and then handing them off to virtual strangers met online, a study committee is considering reforms such as a new requirement that foreign adoptions be approved in Wisconsin.

Our legal system swings to another extreme. Gender bias runs rampant in our family courts. Women of the 1960s fought hard to get laws passed to protect true victims of domestic violence. It took many painful years for our legal system to recognize women as victims of domestic violence.

When 16 and Pregnant debuted in 2009—followed soon after by its spinoff Teen Mom—critics decried it as the ultimate in exploitative programing. Pundits declared that turning unmarried teenage mothers into celebrities would glamorize what society knew and data demonstrated was a destructive behavior. This pair of shows is often cited as the most crass of the reality genre, making entertainment out of the serious emotional problems and poor life choices of its subjects. Amber Portwood, one of the season one stars, was arrested and convicted for a domestic violence incident shown on the show. Farrah Abrams, another season one star, has been arrested for drunk driving and has launched a porn career. It is hard to imagine anyone arguing that two shows seemingly focused from the outset on documenting inevitable trainwrecks could make any kind of positive impact on the lives of its audiences.

Large caseloads were among the safety concerns that led Clark County Department of Family Services’ employees and leaders with the Service Employees International Union to present a petition to Clark County commissioners in August.

When spouses are enmeshed in a divorce proceeding, they often do not see "eye to eye" on matters of child custody. In many cases, both parties want to be able to spend as much time with their children as possible after the divorce. Unfortunately, disputes over custody can be intense and emotionally difficult for all of the parties involved. Keep in mind that in any child custody case, the court will seek to protect the best interests of the child, especially when parents are unable to agree on a parenting plan. To be sure your rights are protected in a child custody or divorce matter, you are encouraged to contact an experienced San Diego family law attorney who is fully aware of the local laws applicable to your case.

The foster care crisis in Hancock County continues to mount. With 458 children now in DHS custody, the county now has the worst per-capita foster care rate in the entire state. A task force has been formed to take an in-depth look at the problem and to come up with viable solutions to reduce the number of children placed in DHS custody.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it was closing the controversial family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico. However, only a month later, the South Texas Family Residential Center opened quietly.

Two men who were sexually assaulted as minors by a foster parent who changed his name to Zack Morris based on the popular television show “Saved by the Bell” are suing the Hawaii Department of Human Services for putting them in harm’s way.

Picture the typical American family: what do you see? You probably imagine a married mom and dad with a couple of kids -- think the Draper family, circa Season 1 of Mad Men. You probably know that that ideal has held true for fewer and fewer families over the decades. But new data from the Pew Research Center shows that fewer than half of American kids now grow up in one of these "traditional" families.

Joette Katz, the controversial child-protection commissioner whose bold moves have made enemies and engendered deep support, has been reappointed to lead what is perhaps the most high-profile department in state government, the governor's office said.

I received an update from the Maryland mom of two who was contacted by Montgomery Country Child Welfare Service in November after she let her kids, ages 6 and 10, play at the park two blocks from home by themselves. She was cited for allowing a child under age 8 "to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent."

Franklin Carranza sat on a sofa surrounded by his family, flipping through a large photo album. The 32-year-old father grinned as he showed his daughter, Melissa, how tiny she was when she was born, pointing to a snapshot of a 4-pound infant in a U.S. neonatal care unit. His son Emanuel smiled at a photo of himself getting ready to slice into an enormous blue and white birthday cake in Guatemala with his grandparents looking on. In another picture, Franklin and his wife Sandra stand in as witnesses during a friend’s wedding in New Jersey.

A lawsuit filed Dec. 12 says Riverside County Child Protective Services staff have made a habit of kidnapping children.

Attorney Shawn McMillan, who specializes in civil rights cases against child protection agencies, said he uncovered an alarming trend about a year ago during discovery for other cases. The suit, currently focused on one case, is slated to become one of many class action lawsuits filed against U.S. child protection agencies after legislation increased funding for adopting foster children.

A state audit has found that some counties in Colorado are not properly conducting background checks before placing children in the care of relatives. While Mesa County recently had a tragic case where a child died in the care of a foster family, the state ranks Mesa County highly.

El Paso County social workers failed to properly document or run 43 percent of mandatory background checks needed for adults in homes taking in children from social services in August, according to a state-led review released this week.

A memo requested by the Board of Education from its lawyer lays out the reasoning behind his argument that the schools had no obligation to report a relationship between a teacher and a student to the Department of Children and Families.

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has lost a legal battle to restore his $4,900-a-month pension, a benefit that was canceled two years ago after he was sentenced for child molestation.

“Judge Dawson, he don’t play,” a parent once said about Herman C. Dawson, the main juvenile court judge in Prince George’s County. And on this Tuesday morning, Judge Dawson was definitely not in a playing mood.

Friday, December 19, 2014

I started reading this blog called "Love, Joy, Feminism" about a year ago. I was intrigued by how the blogs author Libby Ann, who grew up so sheltered from the real world in what she considers to be a dysfunctional, conservative Evangelical home school home could grow up to become the all wise and knowing bleeding heart liberal parent who should be entitled to project her ways and beliefs onto everybody. Not only that, I found it amazing how she uses her blog to bash her own mother because she is still pissed about a spanking that she got as a child. She also constantly complains about being home schooled, all but claiming that her parents used home schooling to hide abuse or something of that nature.

I was even more intrigued by how trusting she is towards the Child Protective Industry who never came to rescue her from those spankings and how critical she is of organizations, groups and individuals who fight to protect parental rights. It's like she's totally focused on the CPS Ideology as the gospel truth, rather than the reality of the monster that CPS has become. She preaches the belief that if CPS is in your life, you must have done something wrong to deserve it. Of course most of you who read Legally Kidnapped know better because you have experienced first hand how CPS engages in fraudulent, heavy handed activities along with the service providers who are paid to treat, love and care for stolen children as has been documented throughout the LK Blog for years.

Even more interesting is the group think mentality of this blogs die-hard followers who engage in in depth conversations to support in agreement everything that was said in the original post. Mostly, the commenters are academic feminists who know everything and are always right, so don't bother commenting or debating with them any oppositional view. Oh, did I mention they banned me from commenting? All I had to do to set them off was to speak.

Anyway...

Now Libby Ann has vowed to attack the Home School Legal Defense Association with a new series examining things that the HSLDA opposes. Here are the first two installments of this.

I especially urge you to read the comments. It might help you to understand the opposition that we face in the blindly supportive world in which CPS exists. Notice they are trusting and supportive of CPS. In fact, their criticism is just the opposite of ours.

Them: CPS doesn't move fast enough to investigate abuse or act on their reports.Us: They steal too many kids unnecessarily.

Here is a screen shot of a comment thread that demonstrates this...

Now, to tell you the truth, I haven't paid all that much attention to the HSLDA outside of reading and posting a few of their articles. I've never had a reason to take issue with what they're doing. Many activists respect the work that they've done and appreciate the help that they have given to families who are dealing with CPS. And I know many of you support the Parental Rights Amendment as well.

The Adoption Tax Deduction Bill (S.3382-A – Hassell-Thompson/A.2378-B – Crespo), which would provide a personal income tax deduction for all fees and expenses incurred in connection with the adoption of a child in New York’s foster care system during a given tax year, has been vetoed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In September 2011, a homeschool family in Missouri had a traumatic encounter with local law enforcement when a sheriff and his deputy entered their home without a warrant. The parents are now teaming up with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) to press charges against the two officers involved, on the grounds the warrantless raid violated their Fourth Amendment rights.

The foster toddler who was found dead in her crib the morning of Oct. 12 died of an antihistamine overdose, according to the Clark County coroner’s office. The manner of her death was ruled a homicide.

In a decision handed down on 2 December the High Court held that local authorities who place children in foster care are not vicariously liable for acts of physical and sexual abuse committed by foster carers against those children, nor are they legally responsible for those acts under a non-delegable duty of care (NA v Nottinghamshire County Council).

During election campaigns, politicians love to kiss babies. In fact, they are the perfect campaign accessory. Yet, the reality is, in between elections, Australian babies and children in care are forgotten – crying out for permanent, loving, stable families.

One of the most difficult phases of a child’s life is that of being a teenager. There are pressures from everywhere – parents, teachers, friends, and social media. Essentially the whole world has their eyes on them. And as parents, we want nothing more than to teach our children to have healthy relationships, do their best in school, and to learn essential life skills that will carry them through life. It is our job to nurture and guide them, to prepare them for life. It is critical that parents spend the time teaching their children how to be successful in life, work and relationships. But even with all of our best efforts as parents, we have no certainty as to how our children will interact with the world when it is time for them to spread their wings and fly on their own. Odds are against them every single day as this world pulls them in a million different directions.

Four teenage residents of a Grand Rapids group home used frying pans, a computer monitor and a sock full of pool balls to attack a staff member before fleeing from the facility, according to criminal charges.

Public schools and specialized private schools in Massachusetts that educate children with behavioral or emotional issues will be required to follow new regulations when using restraint or seclusion techniques to control behavior.

The system of child protection, currently applied in many Western countries violates child’s rights and is used as an instrument of political terror, based on anti-family ideology, Finnish expert Dr. Johan Backman believes.

As heroin and prescription drug abuse continues to increase in America, so does the number of children addicted to these substances. In an attempt to protect infants, hospitals have cracked down on their observation of new mothers, but unfortunately this has frightening consequences for drug-free mothers being denied access to their newborns.

The Associated Press asked all 50 states, the District of Columbia and military services to provide information on children who died of abuse or neglect over a six-year span, even as authorities were investigating them or their families or providing some form of protective services.

At least 760 children died of abuse or neglect in the U.S. in a six-year span in plain view of child protection authorities — many of them beaten, starved or left alone to drown while agencies had good reason to know they were in danger.

In the wake of the largest ever jury verdict last week against the state division charged with protecting Oregon's 8,000-plus foster children, the Oregon Department of Human Services is refusing to answer any questions about what happened.

Twenty-five years after ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Somalia and the South Sudan are taking steps to join 193 other countries around the world that have ratified the treaty. This is important news for children, as it provides a framework for nations -- even oppressive ones -- to at least acknowledge and recognize that children have special needs and should be provided the opportunity to, as UNICEF says, "develop their full potential, free from hunger and want, neglect and abuse."

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Earlier this year the Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling unveiled plans for an £85 million secure young offender unit in Leicestershire which will open in 2017. The unit will hold 320 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 17 and its intention is to put “education at the heart of custody” and reduce re-offending. There has been mass condemnation of the “secure college” from various member organizations of the Standing Committee of Youth Justice including the Howard League for Penal Reform who described the government’s plan as “flawed, dangerous and a recipe for child abuse.”

Hannah Overton, who has spent seven years in a Texas prison for the murder of a young foster child she says she didn't commit, has finally won her freedom and will be spending this Christmas with her family.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott has indicated that the governor's office wants the Department and Children and Families to pay the settlement to the surviving Barahona twin whose sibling died after years of torture by their adoptive parents, but questions remain.

Sarah Brasse from Schertz died in a soiled bed of untreated appendicitis. Colton Turner from Austin died of abuse. They are the faces of children who fell through the cracks because case workers did not follow state policy.

Over nine years ago, two social worker investigators from Arizona Child Protective Services stood outside the Loudermilks’ home and demanded entrance. The investigators told the family that if they were not allowed to enter the home, they would remove the Loudermilks’ children and place them in foster care.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

I hate articles like this. They complain about imperfection. They tend to increase paranoia in the child worshipers and create problems for families such as child abuse hysteria and knee jerk legislation designed to empower CPS to be quicker to snatch kids.

At least 760 children died of abuse or neglect in the U.S. in a six-year span in plain view of child protection authorities -- many of them beaten, starved or left alone to drown while agencies had good reason to know they were in danger, The Associated Press has found.

A federal appeals court in Boston on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit that a New York-based advocacy group brought against the state Department of Children and Families. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit voted unanimously to uphold the dismissal of the lawsuit, which the group Children’s Rights filed in 2010 against then-DCF commissioner Angelo McClain, Governor Deval Patrick, and JudyAnn Bigby, then head of the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, alleging negligent care of youths in DCF custody, court records show.

During closing arguments in the criminal sexual conduct trial of Francis Brent Mallo on Monday, Osceola County Prosecuting Attorney Tyler Thompson told jurors that the former juvenile detention center worker and foster father is a predator who has spent decades exerting "sexual control over young girls."

The National Post should be congratulated for adding to the national conversation on the direction of child welfare in this country. In a research project I have been leading, which looks into child protection failures, there are two uncomfortable themes that keep arising: That the system is largely racist and focused on the economically disadvantaged. Aboriginal people make up the largest percentage of children in care across the country. Other minority populations follow. The vast majority of families involved in the child protection systems are also poor.

Saying our borders are "not open to illegal migration," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Monday opened in Dilley, Texas, what is billed as the largest U.S. family detention center to hold those caught entering the country illegally.

Grandparents also have rights when it comes to their grandchildren's safety, but how far those rights goes can depend on each person's circumstances. It gets particularly difficult to decide what to do when the courts have jurisdiction in different states including Colorado, like in the case about to be discussed.

In Canada we are often reminded of the legacy of First Nations Residential Schools and the apprehension of thousands of children who were placed in non-aboriginal foster care and adoptive homes in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission winding down, no one disputes that this cultural genocide was based on a racist understanding of the capacities of First Nations’ families to properly care for their children.

Isaiah Wilson acts out — his hyperactivity, in the form of hitting, punching and screaming, a symptom of a rare chromosome deletion called 8P syndrome. Combined with ADHD and autism, the 10-year-old has had a tough life but, thankfully, a loving family.

On Sunday, December 14th, 100 local foster children who are separated from their siblings in the foster care system were reunited for one day of love and bonding and gift exchange at Circus Circus Adventure Dome.

When the state of Florida quietly agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the gruesome death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona and the torture of her twin brother, Victor, it all but admitted it was at fault.

Elders from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in north-western Ontario remember the bus that drove around their reserve picking up children and shuttling them to a waiting plane for a 345 kilometre flight north to Sandy Lake, a remote community with no outside road link, except for ice roads built on frozen lakes and rivers during the winter.

When the state of Florida quietly agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit over the gruesome death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona and the torture of her twin brother Victor, it all but admitted it was at fault. Now, the Florida Department of Children and Families and lawyers for the state Legislature want to put the deal on hold and indefinitely delay final payments, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.

A Portland jury on Friday awarded the largest sum ever levied against the Oregon Department of Human Services for failing to protect children: $4.1 million to two girls who said they were molested by their Portland foster mom, who had been reported to a child-abuse hotline seven times before state child-welfare workers intervened.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

A registered Department for Children and Families foster parent who wants to remain anonymous says she feels violated. Her personal information, including Social Security number, was inadvertently emailed to 34 other foster parents by the Newport family services division of DCF.

The public’s attention and official scrutiny have rarely been so aligned and focused on Canada’s child-welfare crisis. Could this finally be the time for meaningful reform? First in an in-depth series by Sarah Boesveld and Adrian Humphreys:

Police are issuing a crime alert for parents after a Hancock County mother says a woman showed up and demanded custody of the mother's two children. The woman claimed to be with the Department of Child Protective Services.

A medical director would oversee the levels of mind-altering psychotropic drugs prescribed to children and teenagers in Colorado's foster care system and at the Department of Youth Corrections, under a budget request submitted this week.

A Virginia homeschooling mother has filed a lawsuit against six social workers after they seized her two children on April 3 and placed them in foster care following a determination by one of the workers that a diabetic 4-year-old’s blood glucose levels were too high.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

It’s easy to think so when you hear the latest numbers. In Alaska, nearly one child out of every 100 is in foster care, which is twice the national average. A recent report, put out by University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research, shows those numbers aren’t going down.

We have all seen the stories of children being taken away from their parents because a doctor doesn’t agree with the family doctor’s medical treatments. These are not cases of medical neglect. They are arrogant abuses of power.

THE TRAGIC death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly served as the impetus for the major overhaul of the city's Department of Human Services that was dissected at length before City Council's Health and Human Services Committee yesterday.

Former drug addict Brooke Mueller is now a good mom — according to the Los Angeles Department of Children & Family Services. RadarOnline.com has learned that the authorities have officially closed the ongoing custody case involving Charlie Sheen‘s baby mama, Brooke Mueller, and their twin sons, Bob & Max, 5, as the Palm Beach socialite continues to make progress in her ongoing sobriety.

A teenage boy whose overnight care was subcontracted to untrained individuals met at Starbucks and Narcotics Anonymous is not an isolated case in the province’s foster care system, says B.C.’s child and youth watchdog.

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